GEN News Highlights

Alzheimer's Disease Antibody Bombs

Partners Pfizer and Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy (Janssen AI) have ditched the Alzheimer's disease (AD) candidate bapineuzumab after two Phase III studies evaluating the amyloid β-targeting antibody failed to show any meaningful benefits in terms of patient cognition or function.

The latest of the two failed Janssen AI-led trials, study 301, evaluated intravenous bapineuzumab in 1,300 patients with mild-to-moderate AD who don’t carry the ApoE4 genotype. The firm had previously reported disappointing data from study 302, which enrolled 1,100 patients who were carriers of the ApoE4 genotype. The Phase III program for bapineuzumab also included two Pfizer-led trials, designated 3000 and 3001. All ongoing studies will now be discontinued, including follow-on extension studies in patients with mild-to-moderate AD.

While voicing their disappointment at the failure of the two Phase III trials, Janssen AI and Pfizer say the results, combined with ongoing subgroup and biomarker analyses, will provide valuable new data to aid in ongoing research. “We believe that the trial results will provide a rich dataset that will advance our understanding of this complex disease and inform future research in this field,” comments Husseini K. Manji, M.D., global therapeutic area head for neuroscience at Janssen Research & Development. “Studies with other compounds in earlier stages of development in the Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy Portfolio (AIP) are continuing, and future development strategies will be discussed jointly by the alliance partners.”

Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. The firm’s AIP program was acquired from Elan Pharmaceuticals in 2009, and is being developed in collaboration with Pfizer through an equal collaboration.

Jobs

GEN Jobs powered by HireLifeScience.com connects you directly to employers in pharma, biotech, and the life sciences. View 40 to 50 fresh job postings daily or search for employment opportunities including those in R&D, clinical research, QA/QC, biomanufacturing, and regulatory affairs.

Be sure to take the GEN Poll

Climate Change

How would you describe the researchers response to the 2°C global temperature target?

They are right on the mark. A 2°C global temperature rise will push us further over the edge. We have to set a lower target.

A 2°C global temperature rise is a reasonable target on which to focus in order to diminish the impact of climate change.

We have already gone beyond the threshold for getting a handle on climate change. So now we just need to learn how to adapt to the inexorable climatic changes with which we will have to deal going forward.

They are right on the mark. A 2°C global temperature rise will push us further over the edge. We have to set a lower target.

41.2%

A 2°C global temperature rise is a reasonable target on which to focus in order to diminish the impact of climate change.

23.5%

We have already gone beyond the threshold for getting a handle on climate change. So now we just need to learn how to adapt to the inexorable climatic changes with which we will have to deal going forward.

If you have any questions about your subscription, click
hereto email us or call at (914) 740-2189.

You may also be interested in subscribing to the GEN magazine, an indispensable
resource for everyone involved in the business of translating discoveries at the
bench into solutions that fight disease and improve health, agriculture, and the
environment. Subscribe
today to see why over 60,000 biotech professionals read GEN to
keep current in the areas of genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, biomarker discovery,
bioprocessing, molecular diagnostics, collaborations, biotech business trends, and
more.